Dairy veal does not need to be milk fed and Professor Lean believes the welfare challenges associated with international veal production can be overcome.

"It seems illogical in a world screaming out for protein that we don't have a good way of managing dairy bull calves," he said.

"Dairy beef could provide a better life than disappearing from the system at a few days old.

"They could represent another 600,000 animals providing high quality beef."

He said Jerseys had the potential to be a "smaller animal that marbles for a really boutique market" but that quality would be highly dependent on the way the beef was grown.

Mr Polkinghorne said the ultimate aim of the Dairy Beef Project was to provide both producers and processors with guidelines.

"We'll be answering questions about how much they eat, how much they grow, and what they're like to eat if you rear them in different ways," he said.

"Sure, the needle on the economics will move every day depending on the cost of feed and the prices being fetched at market but you will be able to do your budgets and decide which approach suits your system.

"The Dairy Beef Project aims to address welfare and economic needs for the dairy industry.